The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1887-01-13

FAR more dignificd than the modern
high, square, bay-windowed, turreted,
vg-saw finished wooden building, or
even the substantial brick one, with
copings and facings Of different colors.
Contrasts no less marked will be seen
in the passers-by in the streets. The
SUGGESTIONS are almost fantastic; time
seems playing at phantasmagoria while
one watches them.
Close on the heels of two dapper
young Americans in buggy, with sur
veying instruments and charts in their
hands, comes Mexican cart, creep
ing along, drawn by oxen; its wheels
are circles of solid wood, sections Of
tree-trunks, roughly hewn. with an ir-
regularly shaped hole in the center, in
which creaks the rough-hewn axle. The
driver is in rags and dirty, but he wears
fine broad-brimmed sombrero, with a
roll Of twisted silver wire and straw
around the crown; and as he goes he
sings a lifting song to himself, or whis-
ties softly, or takes nap in his cart.
and he would not change places with
the hard-working young surveyors If he
could.
Sauntering through the Plaza, and
looking curiously. with furtive glances.
at strangers. come his sweetheart and
her friend. They wear trailing cotton
gowns, sweeping u foot behind them.
and begrimed halfway up the skirt
with the impalpable, ineradicable Santa
Fe dust; they would feel humiliated 10
lift them, and to wear them short would
be disgrace. To be unconscious of
dirt, superior to it, is dignity. On their
heads they wear gay shawls, black with
gaudy flowers, or white striped like a
rainbow. With one hand they hold
the shawl-folds firm over their mouths,
their soft, but passionate black eyes
cleaning out of the triangular opening
above, as from the bars of prison.
window. They are used to only half
seeing; for the few windows they have
in their houses are without glass, and
shut of from the street by jail-like graf
ings of closc-set wooden rails.
Behind them comes, with brisk step
and erect carriage. an American
woman, the wife or sister, perhaps, of
some officer of the fort garrison. She
is dressed in the last Paris style; moth
ing escapes her eyes; as she passes the
sauntering Mexican damsels she glances
disdainfully at their dusty trains; and
they in turn speak scornfully to zach
other of her needless uncovering of
her ankles. In few moments, to
complete the human panorama, there
paling group of Pueblo Indians, bare
headed, wrapped in scarlet blankets.
The dignity of their bearing and the
grace of their drapery put both Mexi-
can and American to shame. Nothin g
can be finer. Roman senators in togas
never folded their arms better, or stood
straighter. They make for the shops.
They have walked all the way in from
their village, twelve miles or more,
having made n little money by selling
| some of their pottery. They have come
in to spend the last dollar of it.
The two most interesting ruins in
Santa Fe are the San Miguel Church
and an old building opposith it, called
the Indian House. This is undoubtedly
the oldest house in America. 1t is a
! rough. two-story adobe, witfra low, mar
row door, and with windows like port
holes. The logs that hold up the dirt
roof show no signs of decay, and the
| building is yet used as a tenement
house. The church is also of adobe,
but built on foundation of small
stones laid in mortar, which is
the reason of its wonderful pres
ervation. 1t was first built in
1910. was partly destroyed by
the Indians in their revolt in 1880, and
built up again in 171O. An inscription,
roughly carved on one of the beams of
the gallery, says that this was done by
the Marquis de la Penuela, through his
agent. Don Augustin Flores Vergara.
The interior of the church is still in
tolerable repair, and service is held in
it. Adjoining it is the house of the
Christian Brothers, an order of the
Catholic Church. This building is also
of adobe, but so firmly built and skill
fully treated that it has the appearance
of stone.
The altitude of Santa Fe is little
over seven thousand feet. Its winters
are sunny and mild; a little snow falls
occasionally, but it never lies long, and
the air is exceptionally dry. Invalids
not injuriously affected by so high an
altitude would probably get in Santa
Fe the best winter climate to be found
in the whole of that plateau, just east Of
the Rocky Mountains, which has come
to be considered the Sanitarium in
America for pulmonary diseases.-H
| H., in Youths Companion
BOHEMIA'S CAPITAL.